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Monday, October 20, 2014

Review: King of Anavrea

I hope you enjoyed the interview last Saturday. When I joined the blog tour, I was given the opportunity to review read and review Rachel Rossano's book King of Anavrea.

Description

King of AnavreaRachel Rossano

A reluctant king, a blind queen, and a marriage that sparked
a rebellion...

Ireic Theodoric, King of Anavrea, constantly battles with his
council over who will run the country. When the council insists on a treaty
with Sardmara, he agrees. However, the treaty quickly becomes an arranged
marriage. Ireic offers up himself for the sake of Anavrea. But after he signs,
no princess appears.

Lirth Parnan, only daughter of the king of Sardmara, survives
alone in a cold, damp tower room. Baron Tor kidnapped her in an attempt to
control her father. No one came to claim her. She suspects her father considers
her flawed beyond use in his political games. After five years of waiting, her
hope of rescue wanes with her health.

After Ireic fights his way into Lirth’s tower, he realizes
the depths of her father’s deception. Instead of being an answer to his
problems, Lirth creates new ones. The council will not accept her as queen, but
Ireic has sworn an oath that he will marry her. His choice could cost him his
throne, perhaps his life.

Review

King of
Anavrea, Book 2 in the Theodoric Sagaby Rachel Rossano, portrays a king, Ireic, who signs a treaty and promises
to marry Princess Lirth as a condition of the treaty. Only, Lirth is not where
her father promised she would be. In fact, she had been kidnapped several years
before and her father had done nothing about it. Ireic then rescues her only to
discover another obstacle—Lirth is blind. Will love overcome all obstacles and
will Ireic’s kingdom accept a blind queen?

King of
Anavrea is a sweet romance that I enjoyed. The story is lovely and filled
with deep characters and faith. Lirth is filled with faith in Kurios, the god
of this story world, despite all the pain she has had to endure through losing
her sight and being kidnapped. Ireic’s faith, on the other hand, grows through
the story as a result of his inability to do everything and the impact Lirth’s
faith had on him. I appreciated that I could see the growth of the characters
in this way and others.

King of
Anavrea is better-written than book one, Crown of Anavrea, which shows growth in the writer. One thing I
noticed is that there are no non-essential scenes, another mark of better
writing. There “scenes” that are skipped which could have been included, but
Rachel Rossano fills in the gaps beautifully nevertheless. Also, Rahcel Rossano
uses foreshadowing well; she mentions a family manor before using it in the
story instead of mentioning it as soon as the characters needed it.

The one problem I had with King of Anavrea is that the plotline and characters are very
similar to the other books I have read by Rachel Rossanno, especially Crown of Anavrea. In both books in the Theodoric
Saga, the characters slowly fall in love after an arranged marriage, there are
political contentions, and several other similarities I cannot include lest I
give away the entire plot. Don’t get me wrong, the books are not exactly the
same, only similar. The plot and characters are sweet and I love them, I just
want to see Rachel Rossano switching things up a little bit more.

Overall, I liked King of Anavrea and hope you will too.

I have received a free copy of this book from the
author in exchange for an honest review.